A Hall-Effect device is a block of semiconductor material which acts as a transducer to convert magnetic flux density into an electrical potential. When a current is passed from one end of the semiconductor material to the other, hole electron pairs are formed inside the semiconductor material. A magnetic field perpendicular to the flow of the current will cause the holes and electrons to separate producing a voltage potential which can be measured between the opposite sides of the semiconductor material. This voltage is proportional to the flux density of the magnetic field and the magnitude of the current flowing through the Hall-Effect device and is mathematically represented by:
V.sub.H = K1I.sub.H .beta., where K = device constant; I.sub.H = Hall current; and .beta. = magnetic flux density.
Since the Hall-Effect device is made of semiconductor material, a constant voltage applied across the device will produce a current through the Hall-Effect device which varies exponentially with temperature. As a result the accuracy of the Hall-Effect transducer is impaired.
In the past one solution attempted to avoid this problem by employing a constant current generator. However, certain problems arose with this approach. Firstly, an ideal constant current source is difficult to build with integrated circuit devices since they contain nonlinear monolithic resistors. A further problem is that there is a temperature dependence associated with the epitaxial silicon Hall resistance despite the use of constant current regulation. A detailed discussion of this latter phenomenon is described in the article entitled "Modular Hall Masterslice Transducer" by R. J. Braun appearing in the IBM Journal Research and Development, July, 1975.